Frankie Dettori drugs test hearing concluded in Paris

Frankie Dettori's legal team said they had a sympathetic hearing at the jockey's positive drugs test inquiry in Paris. Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images

Frankie Dettori's solicitor, Christopher Stewart-Moore, has emerged from a stewards' hearing here on Tuesday that will determine the jockey's fate following a positive test for a banned substance. Dettori failed the test while riding at Longchamp in September and is thought to be at risk of a six-month worldwide ban but France Galop, the body which runs French racing, is not expected to reveal the decision until Wednesday.

"We had a very sympathetic hearing," Stewart-Moore said. "They're not going to make a decision until tomorrow and so we won't make any announcement until tomorrow, out of respect for the decision-making process." Confirming that no further hearings would be required in the case, he said: "We won't be coming back."

The hearing, before three stewards, lasted around 40 minutes until around 9.15am GMT. Its purpose was to determine what punishment, if any, Dettori should face. The jockey was not present at the hearing.

There has been widespread speculation that Dettori will be given a six-month ban, as Kieren Fallon was when he first returned a positive teste here. If the ban were of that length, then the most urgent question would be when it should start or be deemed to have started.

Dettori has not accepted any rides since he was well beaten on Cavalryman in the Melbourne Cup on 6 November and it was open to his legal team to argue that any ban should be backdated to that point. As a fallback position, they may have argued that the ban should at least be deemed to have started on 21 November, the date when Dettori was formally suspended from riding in French races following a medical committee hearing that confirmed his positive test.

If they were successful in either case, Dettori would be able to return to the saddle in May, allowing him to take part in both the Derby and the Oaks. However, the usual procedure in France is for a ban to start nine days after the final disciplinary hearing, taking place on Tuesday.

In that case, a six-month ban would run until mid-June, so that the Italian would miss the first four British Classics of 2013, returning just in time for Royal Ascot.

A long ban would come at just the wrong point in the 41-year-old's career, as he is trying to establish himself as a freelance after 18 years under contract to Godolphin.